web apps

Mozilla has opened its Firefox Marketplace, with Android device owners and developers getting the first access to the browser's app store.

The access arrived yesterday in the release of the latest "Aurora" build of Firefox for Android. Aurora is meant for developers and early adopters, as it is the test stream of Mozilla's browser. The storefront lets people find and install Web applications delivered via the browser, and gives developers a place to publicize their apps.

"We're hoping that Aurora users, our awesome early adopters, will go experience the Firefox Marketplace on their Android … Read more

Sad about your beloved iOS 5 Maps app getting nuked in favor of Apple's new Maps app? Do you miss Street View? Well, Google's come to the rescue to some extent, via its maps.google.com Web app, which launched Street View functionality today.

For iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad owners, using the Web-based version of Google Maps is as easy as visiting maps.google.com and then choosing to add an icon-shaped hot link directly to their home screen. So, what does it do? Well, besides having transit directions (already available on maps.google.com), the newly … Read more

HTML5 fans got a very large splash of very cold water in their faces yesterday.

Facebook has been a big fan of building mobile apps using HTML5 and related Web standards, but no less than founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called Facebook's HTML5 app "one of the biggest mistakes if not the biggest strategic mistake that we made."

Those are powerfully damning words, and many developers will likely take them to heart given Facebook's cred in the programming world.

But there are subtleties here -- not an easy thing for those who see the world … Read more

iPhone? Check. Android? Check. For most mobile apps, that's enough. Popular news reader Pulse, however, has decided that its next frontier is something you may have heard of before called the World Wide Web.

Pulse's Web app at Pulse.me is built entirely from HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, and indicates that the future-Web technologies are rapidly approaching a state where they can easily re-create native app experiences in the browser. The site is accessible from most major browsers on traditional PCs and mobile devices. With the touch-focused Windows 8 and its associated touch screen hardware coming at the … Read more

Mozilla took a big step toward the coming conflict between native apps and Web apps as it introduced Web app support to Firefox 16, which moved to the the developer's Aurora channel last Friday.

The Web app support in Firefox 16 Aurora (download for Windows, for Mac, for Linux, and for Android) means that when the Mozilla Marketplace opens to the public -- likely to be sometime before the end of 2012 -- people will be able to run Web-based apps through any iteration of Firefox. This is part of Mozilla's "Kilimanjaro" project, syncing up the … Read more

A new way to manage your torrents puts a bit of Torque in your Web browser. Debuting today from the company that makes uTorrent and BitTorrent, the alpha version of BitTorrent Torque creates rudimentary torrent controls in JavaScript that can be run from your HTML5-compliant browser.

In a blog post announcing Torque, BitTorrent developer Patrick Williams explained that Torque works by providing a JavaScript hook to a custom BitTorrent client backend. From there, developers can write apps that use Torque's APIs.

Currently, there are two extensions for Torque. One is Paddle Over, which integrates drag and drop file transfers … Read more

Microsoft Office users can expect to see a new version of Office Web Apps this summer, according to Windows Live enthusiast site LiveSide.net.

The cloud-based suite will reportedly be available in "preview" mode at the same time that Office 15 for the desktop is released as a beta. Users will be able to try the latest features of Office Web Apps to create or edit documents stored through SkyDrive or Hotmail, LiveSide added.

Little else is known or at least revealed about a new version of Office Web Apps. Microsoft did not immediately answer CNET's request … Read more

Mozilla is best known as the developer of Firefox, but it's reaching well beyond the browser with a 2012 strategy that strives to use the open Web to counteract ecosystem lock-in.

Firefox embodied Mozilla's effort to counter the damage that Microsoft's browser dominance caused on the Web. But now, as revealed in Mozilla 2012 plans published Sunday, the non-profit organization is putting the crosshairs on other big competitors, too: Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Those companies, along with Microsoft, each are building an ecosystem encompassing devices, operating systems, app stores, and apps. People should be worried about getting … Read more

There may be a million reasons why your hot date didn't call to go out again. It could be your Celine Dion shirt, your collection of "Star Wars" Pez dispensers, or the Steve Wozniak tattoo on your butt.

WotWentWrong is a Web app that takes the mystery out of the dating dumps. It gives the dumper an opportunity to tell you what went wrong so you can try to avoid the same hiccups with your next prospect.

Using WotWentWrong is a lot faster and easier than Facebook stalking or dropping desperate hints to friends-of-friends. You simply customize a form letter chosen from a variety of styles, provide some feedback about your date, and let the app take care of the rest.… Read more